Oppo Reno5 Pro 5G Review: More Than Just Stunning Looks?

Stunning Looks And Great Ergonomics

The Reno5 Pro 5G looks stunning, feels very premium in hands, and check almost every box of good ergonomics. The phone is very sleek, a mere 7.6mm, and is one of the lightest (173 g) smartphones in its respective price-bracket. The lightweight and sleek body are further complemented by a textured back panel and glossy frame that combined offers a good grip on hands. If you are looking for a big-screen phone that can be used with one hand, the Reno5 Pro 5G is an ideal choice.

Lastly, the phone's built quality is good and it feels durable; however, it lacks an official IP rating, something that's expected at this price-point.

No 3.5mm Audio Jack And No microSD Card Slot

Some compromises were made to achieve such a sleek form factor. The Reno5 Pro 5G lacks a 3.5mm audio jack and a microSD card slot. As the phone is only available in 128GB storage, make sure you explore the market before making a final purchase. Thankfully, Oppo is offering all the required accessories in the box. The Reno5 Pro 5G ships with good quality USB Type-C earphones, Type-C charging cable, 65W power adaptor, and a silicone case.

6.5-inch Full HD (2400x1080) 90Hz AMOLED Display

The Reno5 Pro 5G sports a 6.5-inch Full HD (2400x1080) AMOLED display. It's an excellent screen for multimedia playback, reading e-books, browsing the internet, and performing all other day-to-day tasks. The almost bezel-less screen (92.1% Screen-to-Body ratio) bends towards the edges but not to the extent that it affects user-experience by triggering ghost touches. The subtle curves also add a premium look to the front fascia of the handset. The 90Hz refresh rate makes UI navigation and scrolling a buttery smooth experience on the Reno5 Pro 5G.

Good Overall Display

The display has excellent peak brightness (1100 nits) and good contrast levels ensuring a comfortable viewing experience even under direct sunlight. I could read the text and even watch videos in harsh lighting on the Reno5 Pro 5G without any visibility issues. Videos and gameplay look excellent on the Reno5 Pro 5G's display as the panel is also HDR10+ certified. Sadly, Oppo did not offer a stereo speaker setup on the Reno5 Pro 5G which could have further amplified the multimedia performance. As far as durability is concerned, the display has a coating of the Corning Gorilla Glass 5 to prevent scratches and possible damages.

Reno5 Pro 5G Camera Setup

The Reno5 Pro 5G's camera setup is quite familiar to its predecessor. The 48MP primary sensor has been replaced by a bigger 64MP sensor. The remaining camera sensors are identical. These include- 8MP ultra-wide-angle camera, a 2MP macro camera, and a 2MP mono camera. The primary camera captures crisp and vivid pictures when there's abundant light. The images show a wide dynamic range and great detailing. The clarity and details hold well even in low-light.

Average Wide-Angle Shots

Oppo should have upgraded the ultra-wide-angle camera as the 8MP sensor captures pretty average shots. Images lack details and even the dynamic range fails to impress. Similarly, the 2MP macro sensor is well, like any other 2MP macro sensor, and captures underwhelming macros that lack details and mostly come out noisy. The 'AI Scene Enhancement' helps to some extent and improves the picture output in real-time.

Excellent Selfies And Good Video Recording Features

The Reno5 Pro captures crisp selfies with little or no skin smoothening issues, provided that you haven't enabled any filter or applied skin-softening features. The selfies look natural and show good details. The phone's autofocus is very impressive and works very well while clicking selfies and pictures from the rear camera. The portrait mode also captures good images but the edge detection could use some improvements.

Oppo has also added a new 'AI Highlight Video' mode that improves the overall video recording capabilities of the handset. Once enabled, the camera senses the available light and improves the clarity by tweaking brightness and exposure based on the shooting conditions.

The AI Highlight Video also activates the Live HDR algorithm when the sensor detects harsh lighting environments. The Reno5 Pro 5G' camera records crisp and perfectly exposed videos in varied lighting conditions. Video footages also show vivid colors and a wide dynamic range. There's just one downside. The AI Highlight mode maxes out at 1080p and cannot improve video quality while recording 4K videos. Similarly, the software powered ultra steady mode does not work with 4K video recording.

Useful Camera Modes

Besides, the camera also has various other picture/video modes that allow you to experiment with smartphone photography. These include Dual-view Video, AI Color Portrait, Monochrome Video, Ultra Steady Video 3.0, and 960fps Smart Slow-motion.

The Dual-view video mode is an extremely useful feature for content creators. It simultaneously records video from both front and rear cameras that can be utilized to create interesting and informative videos for YouTube and short-length video platforms.

Overall, the Reno5 Pro 5G has a decent camera with some interesting and useful video recording features.

Hardware And Software Performance

The Reno5 Pro is powered by MediaTek's all-new flagship Dimensity 1000+ chipset, which is pitted against Qualcomm's Snapdragon 865 chipset. Similar to the SD865, the MTK Dimensity 1000+ is also fabricated on the 7nm process; however, Qualcomm takes lead in almost every performance aspect. It is more power-efficient than Dimensity 1000+, has a more capable GPU, better AI performance, and camera capabilities.

But this doesn't mean the MTK Dimensity 1000+ is a bad chipset. It is also very much capable of delivering a lag-free and feature-rich smartphone user-experience, especially in the 5G connectivity performance. As the MTK Dimensity 1000+ features an integrated 5G Sub-6 modem, it will offer better power consumption on 5G networks (once rolled out) when compared to the SD865's discrete X55 5G modem.

Fluid Gameplay Experience

The Dimensity 1000+ can very well handle moderate to heavy tasks without breaking up a sweat. The chipset has been paired with 8GB RAM + 128GB ROM and the setup ensures smooth and lag-free processing and multitasking. I did not encounter any performance issues on the Reno5 Pro 5G. The phone feels snappy and very responsive. Good hardware-software optimization ensures smooth performance all-day-long.

A major reason for the fluid performance is the 90Hz refresh rate panel and very well optimized software that gets the job done, beautifully. The Reno5 Pro 5G runs on the ColorOS 11.1 based on Android 11. The phone's in-screen fingerprint scanner is also very fast and accurate.

How MediaTek Dimensity 1000+ Fares In Benchmarks?

As far as benchmarks are concerned, the Reno5 Pro 5G scored 420884 in Antutu and touched 719 in Geekbench's Single-core test and 3093 in the Multi-core test. The chipset scored 7234 points in PC Mark's Work 2.0 performance test. These are good numbers but not match up against the scores we have received on a Snapdragon 865-powered device.

Best-In-Class 65W SuperVooc 2.0 Technology

Once you start using the Oppo's SuperVooc 2.0 fast-charge technology, there's no going back. The 65W fast-charging adaptor is crazy fast and recharges the phone's battery in less than 30 minutes. I drained the Reno5 Pro 5G's 4,350 mAh battery and plugged the device on charging with data/Wi-Fi switched off. The battery reached 50% in just 13 minutes and recharged to 100% in 29 minutes. That's insane!

And as far as battery backup is concerned, the phone can only last a day with moderate usage. Start playing games or stream videos on a loop and the battery drains quickly. The Reno5 Pro 5G can barely last one full day with heavy usage.

Verdict

The Oppo Reno5 Pro is a well-rounded package and brings significant improvements over its predecessor. It looks premium, flaunts a fluid and vivid AMOLED display, and also performs very well, thanks to the powerful hardware and well-optimized software. The 65W fast-charging is the icing on the cake and makes for an excellent feature in the day-to-day routine. The only place where the Reno5 Pro 5G could have been better is the camera performance.

Oppo has tried to cover up the weak camera hardware with some software touch-ups and they work to a good extent but mostly for video recording. For still photography, there are better options available in the market at a somewhat similar price-point.

And if you want a similar camera and hardware performance, an even higher refresh rate 120Hz display, and the insane 65W fast-charging technology at a lower price-point, the Realme X7 Pro (Rs. 29,999) is worth considering. It might not look as stylish as the Reno5 Pro 5G, but it delivers similar performance at a marginally low price-point.